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NJBIRDS:
Here is one of the more bizarre and amazing posts we have ever made:
At 1:15 PM, while driving north on the Garden State Parkway on Sunday afternoon, Shawneen Finnegan saw an albatross flying with Laughing Gulls directly over the median divide on the Garden State Parkway about 1/2 mile south of Shellbay Landing (between MM8 and 9)! After pulling over she was able to see through binoculars that it was mostly black-billed and had a gray wash to the head, white underparts, a blackish-bordered underwing, and slate-gray upperparts, but she did not see it long enough to identify it to species. It dropped down behind the treeline just east of the parkway. No one was able to refind it, despite a number of birders searching a variety of locations around the county for a couple hours or more.
It is not known whether or not the two days of east wind and off-and-on rain was a major factor in this event. The winds here were "only" about 20 mph on Saturday, and were less than 10 mph on Sunday. But such factors as precipitation and the length (2 days) of the poor weather may or may not have played a role. On Sunday, 3 Sooty Shearwaters and a Wilson's Storm-Petrel were seen from shore at Cape May Point, and an adult Arctic Tern and another Sooty were reported from across the Bay at Cape Henlopen, DE.